While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
It is well known
that the names of Indians are almost
always connotive, and particularly
that they generally refer to some
animal, predicating often some
attribute or position of that
animal. Such names readily admit of
being expressed in sign language,
but there may be sometimes a
confusion between the sign
expressing the animal which is taken
as a name-totem, and the sign used,
not to designate that animal, but as
a proper name. A curious device to
differentiate proper names was
observed as resorted to by a Brulé
Dakota. After making the sign of the
animal he passed his index forward
from the mouth in a direct line, and
explained it orally as "that is his
name," i.e., the name of the
person referred to. This approach to
a grammatic division of substantives
maybe correlated with the mode in
which many tribes, especially the
Dakotas, designate names in their
pictographs, i.e., by a line
from the mouth of the figure
drawn representing a man to the
animal, also drawn with proper color or position. Fig. 150 thus shows the
name of Shun-ka Luta, Red Dog, an Ogallalla chief, drawn by
himself. The shading of the dog by vertical lines is
designed to represent red, or gules, according to the
heraldic
scheme of colors,
which is used in other parts of this
paper where it seemed useful to
designate particular colors. The
writer possesses in painted robes
many examples in which lines are
drawn from the mouth to a
name-totem.
It would be interesting to dwell
more than is now allowed upon the
peculiar objectiveness of Indian
proper names with the result, if not
the intention, that they can all be
signified in gesture, whereas the
best sign-talker among deaf-mutes is
unable to translate the proper names occurring
in his speech or narrative and, necessarily ceasing signs,
resorts to the dactylic alphabet. Indians are generally
named at first according to a clan or totemic system, but
later in life often acquire a new name or perhaps several
names in succession from some exploit or adventure.
Frequently a sobriquet is given by no means complimentary.
All of the subsequently acquired, as well as the original
names, are connected with material objects or with
substantive actions so as to be expressible in a graphic
picture, and, therefore, in a pictorial sign. The
determination to use names of this connotive character is
shown by the objective translation, whenever possible, of
those European names which it became necessary to introduce
into their speech. William Penn was called "Onas," that
being the word for feather-quill in the Mohawk dialect. The
name of the second French governor of Canada was "Montmagny"
which was translated by the Iroquois "Onontio"—"Great
Mountain," and becoming associated with the title, has been
applied to all successive Canadian governors, though the
origin being generally forgotten, it has been considered as
a metaphorical compliment. It is also said that Governor
Fletcher was not named by the Iroquois "Cajenquiragoe," "the
great swift arrow," because of his speedy arrival at a
critical time, but because they had somehow been informed of
the etymology of his name—"arrow maker" (Fr. fléchier).
This site includes some historical
materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or
language of a particular period or place. These items are presented as
part of the historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that
the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes implied.
Sign Language
Among North American Indians Compared with
that Among Other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes,
1881
